Conservative Women and Parliament

After the 1931 general election, there were 13 Conservative women MPs.

After the 1997 general election, there were 13 Conservative women MPs.

Women on the Conservative benches in the House of Commons still remain woefully under-represented - the 2005 election returned only 17 women MPs - 9% of the Parliamentary Party. The CWO is dedicated to enabling more women to become elected as Members of Parliament.

The Conservative Party has overhauled its selection procedures and made great strides in the selection of women candidates.

The priority A-list was, when announced by David Cameron in 2005, one of a number of interventions that helped to deliver more than 80 women candidates in winnable constituencies and the CWO has been at the forefront of finding, mentoring, training and helping women to stand in public life.

In 2010, the Party had 49 Conservative women MPs, a 250% increase over the previous number of 17 women MPs. This was further increased by another 40% with 68 Conservative women MPs returned in May 2015.

There have been very real advances made within the party while David Cameron was the Party leader but there is more to be done to increase female representation at all levels of public life.

Video introduction toConservative Young Women

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About the CWO

The Conservative Women's Organisation was founded in 1919, although its roots go back to 1885 and the Primrose League. It continues to work for the women members of the Conservative Party and to represent their views to the Party Leader, Chairman and MPs. The CWO also works with many NGOs, giving a voice to smaller campaigns and publicising national and international ones. We network with businesses (CWO Enterprise), put forward policy (CWO Forums) and work with women and men interested in standing for public office (CWO Development).